Ben Youssef criticises PSL over Chiefs’ fixture congestion

Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Khalil Ben Youssef has suggested the Premier Soccer League (PSL) has not been supportive of Amakhosi amid their Caf Confederation Cup journey.

After his side saw off Egyptian side Al Masry 2-1 in their dramatic penultimate Group D fixture at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday, the coach questioned why Chiefs have played the same number of games as teams that are not playing continental football.

Ben Youssef is of the view the league should have postponed some of Chief’s domestic fixtures to accommodate their Confed Cup programme.

“We have played four or five games away [in a row],” Ben Youssef said.

“We are in a situation where we are flying back [to Johannesburg] today [on Sunday], and tomorrow [Saturday] we are flying [again, to Egypt, to meet Zamalek on Saturday] without any training session. It’s been two or three weeks without a training session.

“We play a game today and rest or do recovery the next day. You can’t do anything on match day. When you prepare for the fixture, you have to think about the players.

“We’re in a situation where we’ve played all our league games, despite being in the Confederation Cup. I remember last season the league changed the fixtures to accommodate teams who were playing Caf tournaments, allowing them to play their last five or six league games in May.

“This season, we are playing Caf, but we’ve played all the games in the league and the opponents don’t play anything, and they have two or three games in hand.”

Chiefs have played five games in 15 days. No teams have played fewer games than Amakhosi in the league, but Orlando Pirates had a few games in hand a few weeks ago until they caught up with the rest of the sides.

“We are representing Bafana Bafana, and we are representing South Africa. You give us two months without competition, and when we return, we play a game every three days,” Ben Youssef said.

“How can we deal with that? Playing all the games outside, travelling, the workload is too much and our players are at big risk of getting injuries.”

Chiefs top Group D of the 2025-26 Confederation Cup with 10 points. They Zamalek in the last round of at Cairo International Stadium. Chiefs need to avoid a defeat to ensure qualifying for the knockout phase.

Sowetan